Article by Joe Mcintyre, Anna Olijnyk and Kieran Pender. Australian Public Law.
May 4, 2020.
Reforms of courts and judicial processes generally occur at a glacial pace. Not only is law inherently conservative, courts are complex systems. The implications of change need to be carefully considered to ensure relevant protections are maintained and cherished objectives promoted.
All of this makes the breakneck transition to ‘virtual courts’ in response to COVID-19 at once terrifying, thrilling, concerning and exciting. Necessity is forcing changes, particularly in the use of remote and online hearings, that were impossible to imagine a few short months ago. The challenge in such a transition is to find the right balance in protecting both the short- and long-term rights and interests of parties and the public. Not only may bad practices adopted in emergency conditions be difficult to wind back later, but vital protections may be unnecessarily denied in the coming months.
This post seeks to identify and discuss the potential challenges raised by this dramatic pivot in court practices. The focus is on general principles of public law (rather than discrete Australian constitutional restrictions), and it adopts a self-consciously comparative approach.
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